Lemony Snicket fans rejoice that 'The End' arrives today

Regan McMahon, Chronicle Assistant Book Editor

Published 4:00 am, Friday, October 13, 2006

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

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Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, is publishing the final, 13th book of his successful series of children's books. Photographed in San Francisco on 10/3/06.
(Deanne Fitzmaurice/ The Chronicle) Mandatory credit for photographer and San Francisco Chronicle. /Magazines out. less

handler11_0159_df.jpg
Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, is publishing the final, 13th book of his successful series of children's books. Photographed in San Francisco on 10/3/06.
(Deanne Fitzmaurice/ The ... more

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

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handler11_0140_df.jpg
During this photo shoot in a San Francisco park, Daniel asked a woman passing by, Annalese Levaggi, to jump off a park bench with him. Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, is publishing the final, 13th book of his successful series of children's books. Photographed in San Francisco on 10/3/06.
(Deanne Fitzmaurice/ The Chronicle) Mandatory credit for photographer and San Francisco Chronicle. /Magazines out. less

handler11_0140_df.jpg
During this photo shoot in a San Francisco park, Daniel asked a woman passing by, Annalese Levaggi, to jump off a park bench with him. Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, is publishing ... more

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice

Lemony Snicket fans rejoice that 'The End' arrives today

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Children around the world are braced for a bittersweet moment as the 13th and final volume of Lemony Snicket's best-selling children's books, "A Series of Unfortunate Events," hits stores today.

Titled simply "The End," it may be the last we hear of the Baudelaire orphans and the evil Count Olaf, a distant relative intent on robbing the three siblings of the abundant inheritance left by their parents, who perished in a fire 10 pages into the first book of the series. But it does resolve some of the mysteries that have perplexed devoted fans since the debut volume, "The Bad Beginning," was published in 1999.

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Daniel Handler, the man behind the most famous pseudonym in contemporary children's literature, knew at the outset there would be 13 books in the series. "When the idea occurred to me," he said over lunch last week at La Mediterranee in San Francisco, "I thought the only thing that was more interesting than one book about dreadful things happening repeatedly to orphans was 13 books of dreadful things happening repeatedly to orphans."

But when HarperCollins published the first book, it made clear it wasn't necessarily signing on for all 13. The company -- and Handler -- had no idea that between then and now the series would sell 51 million copies worldwide, appear in 40 languages and become the basis for a major Hollywood movie, with negotiations continuing for further film releases.

The initial print run for "The End" is 2.5 million copies, the largest ever for HarperCollins' Children's Books. "One million is considered really big," said Kyle Good, vice president of corporate communications for Scholastic Books, which released that many copies of the latest "Captain Underpants" book in August. Handler is perhaps the closest competition to J.K. Rowling, whose last "Harry Potter" book hit the marketplace with an astronomical 13.5 million copies.

Handler, 36, who lives in San Francisco with his wife, graphic designer, illustrator and author Lisa Brown, and their son, Otto, who turns 3 this month, can hardly believe it himself -- not just his great good fortune but also that he actually finished the series.

"To some extent I'm relieved, and to some extent I'm sad," Handler said. "But I mostly can't really believe that I did what I said I would do. That's so unlike me."

The series is a substantial literary achievement, as well. Dazzlingly original, the books take a deadpan approach to menace and tragedy. Their basic premise is that the world is a treacherous place, and no one can escape its treachery, except momentarily -- a perspective informed by the experience of Handler's father, who escaped the Holocaust by fleeing Germany as a child.

"The situation of people getting out of Germany as the Nazis were gaining power is, I think, just a particularly dramatic example of a fairly common story, which is that if you're good you're not necessarily rewarded, and if you're bad, you're not necessarily punished," Handler says.

Handler never talks down to readers. In fact, he talks up to kids: His text is full of literary allusions (starting with the orphans' last name, taken from the 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire) and sophisticated vocabulary that narrator Snicket wryly interrupts the story to explain.

"Unfortunate Events" fans are legion. "I get almost uncountable amounts of letters," Handler says. "I used to get more than I could answer, and now I get more than I can read." In May 2002, seven of the first eight books hogged the New York Times Children's Best-Sellers list at once.

Children have been captivated by the extreme peril of the orphans and the extreme evil of their nemesis, Count Olaf, and readers -- the young and not-so-young -- have delighted in the camaraderie and resourcefulness of the three Baudelaire children. While each adventure is self-contained, an overarching mystery involves the Baudelaires' parents and their associates in an evil-fighting organization called the VFD.

In addition, there is the puzzle of Beatrice, Snicket's deceased beloved, to whom he dedicates each book. Clues to her identity appear in the full-color, large-format book "The Beatrice Letters," published in September, which is presented as a collection of correspondence between Beatrice and Snicket that contains clues to revelations in "The End."

The larger mystery is the hook for many readers. "That's what kept me going," says Ethan Hoffman of Oakland, 14, who started reading the series when he was 9.

"You can never really put it together," says Oakland reader Olivia May, who's 13 and has devoured each Snicket book. "You think you can almost every time, but then you can't. That's half the reason I read them. I'm sad that the series is ending, but I can't wait to see what happens, and how Lemony Snicket is connected to all these people."

"I pretty much always knew how it would end, if not always how I would get there," says Handler. His approach to mapping out the adventures was decidedly old school.

"I had a bunch of scraps of paper that were often placed into envelopes and thumbtacked to a wall, which was not the way to go, because then I couldn't ever remember what was in the envelope, so I would have to open the envelopes. And it's hard to open an envelope when it's thumbtacked to the wall, so then it would fall off, and then everything would come out of the envelope, and if I had two envelopes open, then I couldn't remember which scraps of paper were in which envelope. But, nevertheless, with that solid methodology, I both planned what would happen in the future and then allowed myself to improvise, because I didn't want to feel as if I were completing a coloring book or a crossword puzzle for several years."

Handler believes the same sensibility that colors the series runs through his novels for adults -- "The Basic Eight," "Watch Your Mouth" and "Adverbs," published in April. While they have not been blockbusters, they have garnered largely positive reviews.

"There was a really funny negative review of 'Adverbs,' " he recalls, "that said, 'Fans of Lemony Snicket will be disappointed, because there's nothing but unreliable narrators, philosophical digressions and linguistic tricks in this book, as opposed to Lemony Snicket.' And I thought, 'That is exactly the same; I couldn't have said it better.' So it's fascinating to me that anyone would find them different."

Thanks to the Snicket series, he doesn't really have to worry about how well his novels do. He says for many writers, critical reception is key in continuing to get published. But if Handler gets a bad review, "it just isn't as far a tumble as it might be for somebody who put together a collection of short stories or who is living on a meager teacher's salary or desperately wants to quit their coding job or something."

He does plan to continue writing both children's books and adult fiction. An inveterate accordionist, he also will continue to play music. He has just embarked on a six-week national tour for "The End" that includes performances with the Gothic Archies (a group headed by Stephin Merritt of New York indie band the Magnetic Fields), whose CD, "The Tragic Treasury: Songs From 'A Series of Unfortunate Events,' " was released this week by Nonesuch Records. The CD features 13 ominous songs inspired by the books plus two bonus tracks.

Handler will play accordion with the group and says he hopes Lemony Snicket will show up and play percussion. Locally they will perform at Handler's readings at Capuchino High School in San Bruno on Oct. 28, Book Passage in Corte Madera Nov. 11 and the First Congregational Church in Berkeley on Nov. 12.

Midway through lunch, Handler drops a clue as to whether we'll see any of the series characters again. "I'm sure Lemony Snicket will reappear," he says.

To hear Regan McMahons interview with Daniel Handler, listen to her podcast at sfgate.com/podcasts.

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